After see-sawing back and forth in one of the closest elections ever in West Windsor, the race for three Township Council seats came down to the late hours of election night, November 8, with George Borek, the incumbent, narrowly ahead of Bryan Maher, the challenger from the opposing slate, and Borek’s running mate, Kristina Samonte, just 13 votes ahead of the third member of her slate, Lindsay Diehl, for the final Council seat.
But even that result could not be called “final.” The next day came news of 34 “provisional ballots” turned over to county election officials to resolve questions about voter eligibility. Reasons for being filed as provisional include the voter’s name not appearing on the electoral roll for the given precinct; the voter’s registration containing inaccurate or out-dated information such as the wrong address or misspelled name; or the voter’s ballot already being recorded.
Because municipal and county offices were closed for Veteran’s Day the results were further delayed. Finally, on Tuesday, November 15, the “final, final” results were known.
Borek retained his seat by collecting the top number of votes, 2,071, to Bryan Maher’s 2,063. Samonte pulled ahead of Diehl by a final count of 2,057 to 2,043 while Gary Zohn finished fifth with 1,985 and Lauren Kohn finished sixth with 1,722. Independent write-in candidate Greg Harris had an official total of 273 while 19 other personal choice votes included a few for current Council members Diane Ciccone and Charles Morgan.
In an interview after the final results were announced, Samonte said the close race suggests that West Windsor residents want to see a non-partisan Council.
“They want different voices representing them on Council, but I also think there are a lot of similarities between all of us and a lot of common ground that we can work on. Obviously everybody is concerned with responsible fiscal management and economic development and we will be able to collaborate on the issues,” she said.
In a letter to the editor (see page 2), Maher struck a similar tone: “Upon reflection, I do not believe that our messages were all that different. Both teams were comprised of individuals who care deeply about West Windsor and its future. Both teams want to see the community benefit from a ‘downtown’ area that can bring residents together. And both teams, to varying degrees, want to see taxes kept under control while not sacrificing important services that the community values.”
The final outcome essentially assured the Moving Forward team and its political allies, Council President Kamal Khanna and Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, of having a 3-2 majority in council votes. Maher, a member of the Strong Leaders slate, would presumably side with incumbent Linda Geevers on some issues, particularly the proposed transit village and train station redevelopment.
The Moving Forward team voiced support for InterCap’s plans for a mixed used residential and retail development on Washington Road next to the train station. The Strong Leaders were concerned about possible adverse tax consequences of the InterCap project and preferred to concentrate township energy on improvements on the other side of the train tracks, including the former Acme shopping center.
On election night the Strong Leaders slate wrapped up its activities at the Geevers home on Hawthorne Drive, where the most often repeated phrase was “it’s close, real close.” The tone was similar as the Moving Forward party gathered at the Millbrook Avenue home of Kamal Khanna.
As the results came in Tuesday night the preliminary totals indicated that Maher was the top vote-getter, just ahead of Borek. Of greater consequence, and equally tight, was the margin between Samonte and Diehl. Said Samonte, speaking on the assumption that the remaining provisional ballots would not change the outcome: “I just wish Lindsay could join us on Council because she’s a fantastic person. I’m looking forward to seeing her work in other ways in the community. I definitely think that people like Lindsay who were not elected would have a great opportunity if they ran another time.”
At 10:30 the Moving Forward team was confident enough of two seats that Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh and Council President Khanna addressed their supporters.
“In any case we will need three out of five votes to get things approved, and it appears we have that,” Khanna said. Speaking as a candidate Borek said he felt humbled. “I knew that a lot of residents have liked what I’ve done in the past couple of years serving on Council. It wasn’t a concern — we ran a clean campaign and we had worked hard,” he said.
Borek had a scheduling dilemma at the end of the campaign. His wife had flown to Ireland for a business meeting on Saturday and Borek was set to meet her, taking a flight on Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. He was eager to spend the rest of the week with her but he insisted on being in town for election night.
Borek added that the final three or four days helped boost his campaign down the stretch. Since Friday, November 4, at 8:45 a.m. Borek said he walked more miles in West Windsor than he had ever done before. That final push brought him in front of residents and opponents alike.
“Today we saw Bryan Maher and Gary Zohn at the train station and we said we’re glad this is coming to an end. And at the end of the day we recognize that we’re all West Windsor residents. We’re humbled we had such people willing to run for office,” Borek said.
The voter turnout in West Windsor was low for this election as a figure of around 4,000 voters was estimated. “It shows that people are engaged,” Borek said, “although I was hoping that more citizens would have voted. We moved the election from May not only to save money but also to get more people engaged. It does not seem that more people have gotten engaged this time around but it’s something that you learn from and work towards,” he said.
Borek said Samonte will be a great asset for Council and, “just like Bryan Maher, she will bring something to the table. I think you’re going to have a well-rounded Council and it’s going to work together and do some positive things,” Borek says.
Samonte also took an optimistic view. “Obviously their message did resonate with voters, especially the mantra of working on taxes. They did get Bryan in and I’ll be happy to work with him,” she said.
Samonte, who will be the youngest member of Council at age 40, said she was hoping the Council would concentrate on issues rather than rhetoric. “I hated all of the negative campaigning and some of the ads. I thought it didn’t do anything productive for the debate and I had hoped that it wouldn’t have gone in that direction,” she said.
Diehl, reflecting later on the campaign, complimented Maher on his performance at the October 24 debate, when Maher refuted many of Diehl’s points on improvements to Route 571 and attracting businesses. She said Maher had obviously done much preparation.
“He was aggressive about certain issues such as taxes, and I learned that he did a lot of homework before the election, reviewing the whole school budget and town budget several times. I thought that was impressive and he was very involved in the financial aspects of the town, which led to a good showing for him,” Diehl said.
“Moving forward — (using a pun on her campaign slogan) — I would like to get involved in other town affairs,” she said.
Diehl plans to remain on the affordable housing committee and explore other options on committees. “I feel that we aren’t getting our message out very well, and also for economic development I want to work towards getting more businesses to come to West Windsor,” Diehl said.
Asked if she had any interest in running again, Diehl said simply that she wouldn’t say no.
